Director Maggie Gyllenhaal presents a parable about how women can be treated as commodities without a voice in their lives wrapped in the story of Frankenstein’s monster.
THE BRIDE! (2026)
★★★★ OF ★★★★★ stars
It’s very rare when a modern take on a classic horror story really feels like it’s adding something to the source material or really utilizing the story and characters to make a point about something personal and important to society. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE BRIDE! a post modern reinvention of the Universal Monster classic THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN really succeeds in this regard. It spins the basic story of the original James Whale film into a post World War 1 America, one where notes of the roaring Jazz age of the late 1920s interact with the aesthetic of Dadaist Weimar Germany to create a cocktail where art and political revolution foment a feminist movement inspired by the actions of The Bride (Jessie Buckley) and her beau Frankenstein (Christian Bale) as they make their way across America taking down gangsters, mafiosos and the elite to find themselves and freedom from the status quo.
In many ways, it’s sort of amazing that a movie as arthouse-y as this got made and with a director like Gyllenhaal at the helm. By utilizing the Frankenstein story and mythos, Gyllenhaal gets us invested in this story of Mary Shelley (also played by Buckley) here someone whose literary voice is cut short in her time after giving life to the immortal Frankenstein story. She serves as both the film’s narrator and a ghost who possesses the body of Ida in America in the pre WW2 Chicago time frame of this story, a hooker being used by both crooked cops and a mafioso in his enterprises. Mary’s possession of her body leads to Ida’s untimely death as she makes known how she’s being used by the underworld and by men, but this death is short lived due to the interaction of Frankenstein’s Monster (Christian Bale), who exists as both a literary character of Shelley’s here and a real creation of Dr. Frankenstein. He finds Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening) a mad scientist experimenting in “reinvigoration” to try and make him a companion as his loneliness is unbearable. She at first refuses, but is taken by the idea and the corpse they find is that of Ida. Her resurrection rings her back as both amnesiac Ida and the stubborn spirit of Mary Shelley and their new entity – The Bride – revels in experiencing the world anew. Frankenstein makes her his girl and their run roughshod through the country after killing a pair of world be rapists who would have their way with Ida, now Pretty Penny. The two inspired not only a manhunt led by Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz, but a movement of women tired at being abused and taken advantage by men who become vigilantes styling themselves after The Bride.
There’s a lot going on there – plot wise – as a viewer I would think juggling this many narrative throughlines would be difficult for even a very experienced director to manage, but Gyllenhaal, here in her sophomore feature directing after 2021’s THE LOST DAUGHTER from Netflix, does an excellent job. It helps that she has a powerhouse cast with Bale and Buckley as the leads who really make this film. Bale’s Frankenstein really works here as a vulnerable character, one whose madness and joy is expressed in the language of film from Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger’s musicals and in Buckley he has the ideal partner, one whose madness he almost names as Rogers’ namesake. Buckley lights this film up in essence playing three roles and all of them seeming unique. Her character fights for agency for herself the whole film, to be independent and making herself THE BRIDE as her moniker; not as an addendum to Frankenstein. Frankenstein also longs to be his own person one whose madness can be a strong partner for The Bride. He’s been isolated for so long he sees himself as Jake Gyllenhaal’s Ronnie Reed, an expy version of Astaire, and loses himself in the majesty of films as his existence. Maggie Gyllenhaal uses this obsession to great effect in the film- referencing films from Hollywood’s storied past throughout in their story. It borrows heavily in tone from Arthur Penn’s 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde, in fact, the auteur driven nature of Gyllenhaal’s movie hearkens back to the New Hollywood golden age of the late 60s and 70s. But it also makes great homages to films like Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein and shades to 1953’s Niagara starring Marilyn Monroe. Even Penelope Cruz’s character in the film, Myrna Malloy, serves as a shoutout to classic star Myrna Loy, an actress who fought to not be pigeonholed as a woman in film, which somewhat mirrors her character’s dilemma as a capable detective seen as only a secretary. The film also succeeds in making the coupling of Frankenstein and The Bride succeed, something that has always been seen as a toxic non consensual relationship in the Universal version – here they are star crossed spirits struggling to find each other and themselves – a monstrous Romeo and Juliet who will damn the world and themselves to be free.
There’s a lot to love in THE BRIDE! – those who love film and art and the aesthetic of horror and the golden age of Hollywood will love it to death. There’s also dance and musical numbers here and a film noir tone with an unreliable narrator that can challenge those looking for a straight forward monster tale. This is the type of film that rewards those who love film deeply as it gives it more layers to peel back and those who love strong performances will indulge in this. In some ways I feel like this is what Joker Folie A Deux tried to do and fell short of; a reinvention of characters that uses film as shorthand for love, longing and elevated storytelling.
THE BRIDE! hits theaters on March 6th
—
VIDEO REVIEW